Further
by Malluchan
Summary: Chased. Hunted. Teased and forced and pushed into running, not a victim by choice; you'd rather stay and fight, but you're not allowed. When the road ahead is unlit and you're trapped in the depths of a world unknown, scared and powerless, will you ever make it out? How far would you go?
1. Chapter 1

Here we go again.

This one sprang from playing games like The Infinite Ocean, Colour my Dreams, and the Submachine series. (I highly recommend these by the way.)

Also reading creepy books.

Like I said, here we go again, new adventure :3

And why does Kyouya end up in all my horror/mental stories?

* * *

You never see a crash until it's head on - this they found to be true at 2 am.

When Benkei was awoken by his cell phone ringing, he sat up and answered it immediately.

"Hello?"

"Hello, who is this?"

"Why are you calling my number if you don't know who I am?"

"There was an accident this morning on the highway - your number was on speed dial on the victim's phone."

"This is Benkei Hanawa. I'll be right over."

He had stumbled out of bed while the stranger relayed instructions to the site of the car crash; Fumbling to zip up his jacket, he ended up with two shoes that didn't match and had to go back in the house to fix it.

There was only one person who had his number on speed dial, and this was Kyouya Tategami.

Ambulances pulled up on the sides of the road as he arrived, already dialling Gingka and Hikaru's numbers into his phone, fumbling and getting them mixed up with each other. A paramedic hopped out the nearest ambulance as Gingka's sleepy voice came through the phone.

"Benkei? What are you doing up at 2 in the morning?"

"Kyouya was in a car crash. You need to get over here."

Pretty soon more cars were lined along the highway, watching as the paramedics loaded 7 people onto cots and wheeled them into the backs of the vans. The eighth was retrieved from beneath a toppled white car, and a collective gasp came up from Benkei, Gingka, and Hikaru; Kyouya Tategami's very familiar face lay pale an unresponsive against the industrial white fabric of the cot. Benkei wailed and lunged forward, but two policemen held him back.

The doors to the ambulance shut and were off, sirens wailing and flashing wildly; Benkei scrambled into the back of Hikaru's car with Gingka and they sped to the hospital.

Three worried teenagers sat squirming uncomfortably on the scratchy upholstery in the waiting room, staring at the beige walls, ears numb as Halle Victoral spoke on the TV. Gingka focused his eyes as she started to report a car crash.

"...This is Halle Victoral, live with your morning news. It is now 6 in the morning" (here Gingka realised they'd been waiting for almost 4 hours) "and there's already been a car crash.

"Witnesses say that one car was coming down the road and swerved to avoid a wayward squirrel, going into the opposite lane and hitting another car. Both tumbled over the guardrails and rolled down into a ditch, hitting a pedestrian at the same time. Ivan and Ellie Rainsford and their daughter Marley were in the first vehicle, on their way to Kyoto on an overnight road trip; Danny and Harley Lambert, as well as Calhoun Calvert and Misty Wannamaker, were in the other vehicle, going to pick up a friend. And Kyouya Tategami, the pedestrian victim, is yet unspoken for..."

Gingka had heard enough. He turned to Benkei. "Do you know what Kyouya was doing out there so late?"

"I honestly don't know, Gingka. I think he probably went to get some air and clear his head, or maybe he got a challenge from one of the gangs in the area." Benkei seemed exhausted, and Gingka left him alone. If he didn't know what Kyouya had been doing, it was likely that nobody did. He only hoped that Kyouya would be all right.

* * *

Well, there's your incredibly short first chapter. Don't know when I'll start on the second...


	2. Chapter 2

Kyouya wasn't thinking when the car hit him. That was the point of the excursion: to be able to stop thinking for awhile. That the cold air would shock his nerves into numbness and he'd be able to go home and fall asleep.

It had worked too well.

Had he only been looking, this might not have happened. Crammed in the back of an ambulance with a couple of strangers, he was certain that he was awake, but from the paramedics' reactions, he must have been having an out-of-body experience. Nobody seemed to be able to hear him speaking or see him moving - he found that if he looked down, he could see himself.

But the ambulance stopped abruptly at the hospital and he was crammed back into his own body, unable to move, only seeing the ceiling above him lit by blinding fluorescent lights as he wheeled down the hall.

Whether he'd been hit in the head a bit too hard or the lights were making him dizzy, he thought he saw eyes glowing above him for a split second, but he couldn't be sure.

He could hear past the roaring in his ears now, the faint, worried voices of his friends coming down the hall.

"Is he going to be all right?"

"I can't promise you anything. Do you know what he was doing out in the middle of the night?"

"No, sir. He's always been like that. Nobody knows why he does things."

"Well, I'm certain he'll have learned his lesson by the time he wakes up." If he wakes up. Kyouya could hear the unspoken words behind the doctor's voice.

I'm awake, I'm awake already, he wanted to say, but he couldn't move.

As he sank into darkness, he saw that fleeting, ghostly image again. The eyes blinking down at him. And then he knew no more.

* * *

He wasn't sure, at first, that he'd really woken up. You couldn't see a thing in the darkness.

In front of him was a wall, though, so he was pretty certain he was awake. Staggering against it, he stood, realising he still wore his loafers and jacket. (A/N: I know, I know, loafers and a jacket on Kyo-yo, whatever! But that's how I drew him on the cover, so, meh...)

The wall was rough and, running his hands along it, he found that it continued in the realm of arm's length around him. Stretching up, he found that there was no ceiling within reach.

Where am I? He thought, truly puzzled. The hospital would not have moved him here, surely. He'd been hit by a car, for goodness' sake; he should still be bedridden.

Scenarios ran through his mind. He'd been kidnapped and lain here for months, coming into consciousness naturally. He'd dreamt the whole thing and was in his bedroom with the light off. He was standing on the hospital bed. That was it.

But when he reached down, he met only a cement floor.

He had rolled off the bed, then. But groping in the darkness, he suddenly stopped, as it occurred to him that the darkness may go on forever; and so he stuck to the wall with childish stubbornness, telling himself that it would be morning soon. Even though he knew that he would have been able to see light coming from under the door.

He felt up and down his arms absently; surely he'd still be cut and scraped from rolling down that hill. But he was none the worse for wear.

Kyouya decided to follow the wall - there were things all over his bedroom. So if he'd dreamed the whole thing, he'd know when he tripped over something or knocked into the desk. He flinched at the thought, but it was better than being hit by a car.

But before he could move, he saw a flash of red and felt something move by his arm. He yelped and hopped to the side a little, reaching to his hip for his launcher, but it wasn't there. It must've fallen out during whatever had happened to him.

Moments later, a white light blinded him and he cried out, falling on the floor of what he could now see looked like a basement. And a voice echoed around him.

"Oh, there it is. I thought it had gotten lost."

"Doubtless it would have if we'd have left it any further."

"I'm not an 'it'," Kyouya protested.

"It speaks!" gasped the first voice. "It has linguistical abilities, Fukai. What did it say?"

"Of course it has linguistical abilities, you dimwit. What is your name, human?"

"You say that like you're not human."

"I'm not human, human. Answer my question." There they were, all of a sudden. Demonic, glaring eyes, just beyond the edge of the light, glowing in the dark.

"Tell me where I am first. Is this a dream?"

"An answer for an answer. If you insist on being first, we have all the time in the world. You are perfectly awake. And you're in the hidden world."

"Who are you?"

"Hold on a second", the first voice objected, "That's three questions! You haven't even answered one, yet!"

"My name is Kyouya. And I'm not saying anything else unless you answer me."

"Look at it, Kurai", the second one said. "It is crossing its arms on the floor like a puny human infant."

"I believe it is called pouting."

"I'm not pouting!"

"Very well. If you insist you are not pouting then I shall not try to convince you otherwise. I am Fukai, guardian of the depths."

"I'm - "

"I was getting to that", snapped Fukai. "Don't interrupt me! This is Kurai, guardian of the dark. You landed a bit too far from your dimension, hmm, human?"

"Haven't had a human here in years. Thousands of them." Kurai seemed giddy with excitement.

Their voices sounded like cats' voices.

"Let me out of here. I need to go back to the hospital."

"Oh yes, I remember. You were hit by one of those hunks of metal you humans like to shoot down highways at terrifying speeds."

"They're cars. I refuse to believe that I am in another dimension."

"Listen, Thing. Considering your surroundings, where else could you be?"

"I can't even see."

"Oh yes. Kurai, turn on the lights."

Kyouya flinched as the same bright luminance hit the wall behind him, showing that it was not brick, but a complex mass of swirling colour. Only white fog spread out around him.

Nothing else. No trees, no rocks, no other walls. And nothing remotely resembling a cat.

"Where did you creatures go?"

The lights went off again, and the two pairs of eyes blinked back down upon him. "We are of the darkness and do not like the light."

"If I was hit by a car, how am I here?"

"I don't know, human", snapped Fukai irritably. "You just are."

"How do I get back?"

Silence. The creatures exchanged glances. And then Fukai looked back at him.

"You can get home, that's easy enough. But there is a condition."

"There's always a condition", grumbled Kyouya. "What do I need to do?"

"Play the game", blurted Kurai.

"You have no mind, do you, irritating lout", hissed Fukai at its partner. "You have to undergo a series of challenges. That's the only way we'll let you go."

"What kind of challenges?"

"I don't KNOW", snapped Fukai again. "They just happen different for every human. But", Fukai chuckled, "They are quite amusing to watch."

Kyouya's belly grumbled and he threw an arm across it. Hunger was a sign of weakness. At the rumble, Kurai squeaked and its eyes disappeared.

"Kurai! The human requires sustenance!" shrieked Fukai.

"Should I get it some fish?"

"No, the last time we tried that the human died. Try, uh...try some dirt. Humans like dirt an awful lot."

"I'd prefer the fish, if you please."

Fukai squinted at him. "Are you sure?"

"Yes."

"You get to sleep for one night before you go to your challenge. You don't get food till the morning."

Fukai's eyes disappeared before he could ask it any more questions.

And so Kyouya curled up against the wall, glaring into the blinding light, imagining two cats' tails receding in the darkness to the west.

* * *

Note: Kurai and Fukai translate to Darker and Deeper in Japanese.


End file.
